I managed several months of not using shampoo and conditioner and then went back to using just conditioner as, despite using proper rinses, my hair was becoming increasingly difficult to brush. I've gone back to shampoo and conditioner as it was becoming harder and harder to get my hair clean when my hands and wrists are in pain and they frequently are nowadays. The itching I was getting seems to be my skin being allergic to the oils my scalp produces and not an allergy to the Faith In Nature hair products.

Oh well, it was an interesting experiment. I can wash my hair clean without using product, it's just really painful and takes far too long.

For those who haven't been on LJ at all recently, just over three months ago I stopped using conventional shampoo and conditioner and started using bicarbonate of soda and apple cider vinegar instead. I'm not sure exactly how long ago it was. I've lost count. I could work it out if I could be arsed looking at my diary but I can't.

My hair went back to being a greasy, manky mess when I tried to reduce the bicarbonate concentration about a month ago so I'm stuck with 1tbs in 250ml water. The apple cider vinegar concentration is unknown due to my method of pour some in a bottle and add water. This may have something to do with the occasional icky day. I just add a bit more vinegar and that goes away.

For the past couple of weeks, barring one occasion, my hair has been perfectly fine. Once dry it's soft and not greasy at all. It only starts getting greasy around day three which is perfectly normal for me. It may be slightly drier and frizzier than normal but I'm sure I'll figure out some method for conditioning it if that annoys me. Possibly coconut oil.

I've gone from paying £4 each for shampoo and conditioner to about £1 each for bicarb and cider vinegar. I'm on the first tub of bicarb and just started the second bottle of vinegar so I think I might be saving money. I honestly can't remember how long shampoo and conditioner normally lasted given that I went through phases of just not washing my hair when my mental health was really poor.

The itchiness is rather confusing. It's only itchy when it gets greasy. Am I allergic to mess/grease/myself? The steroid scalp lotion really did help as do antihistamines but as long as I wash it every three days it's bearable.

In January of this year the Commission on Assisted Dying found that “the current legal status of assisted dying is inadequate and incoherent” and that there is “a strong case for providing the choice of assisted dying for terminally ill people”. In its report, the Commission set out proposals for a legal framework within which assisted dying could be practised safely.

The draft Bill that is the focus of this consultation builds on the recommendations of the Commission on Assisted Dying to propose a safeguarded assisted dying law.

The proposed Bill presents an assisted dying model which would allow terminally ill, mentally competent adults in England and Wales the choice of controlling the manner and timing of their death. Patients who request assisted dying would be assessed by two doctors to ensure that they satisfied pre-defined eligibility criteria. The details of the assessments, and other features of the proposed process, are set out in the consultation document alongside the draft Bill itself.

‘The purpose of this consultation is to assess the robustness of the safeguards.’

The purpose of this consultation is to assess the robustness of the safeguards that make up the assisted dying procedure in the draft Bill. This will be done by asking the views of the public, health and social care professionals, patient representative organisations and legal experts. The APPG on Choice at the End of Life and Dignity in Dying want to work with others to ensure not only that patients at the end of life have choice and control, but also, crucially, to ensure that the safeguards work well in practice.

You can download the consultation document, including the draft Bill here. If you wish to, you can answer the consultation questions using this website here.

Jobcentre bosses warn of suicide risk among benefit claimantsFrom the comments "Will there be an investigation into how politicised the DWP press office has become? This statement: It remains rare to find incidents of self-harm where the benefits system is said to have been a factor, but we are not complacent when it comes to ensuring that our staff can provide the right support and help to those affected.

Breadline Britain Day Three: austerity, hungry kids, mental health"I'm told the call, by shadow work and pensions secretary Liam Byrne, will be made at an opposition day debate on disability this lunchtime.Byrne will apparently reveal new figures that show that : the cuts to disabled peoples' benefits now outstrip the amount of money the Government is taking from bankers."

Mental health of benefit claimants is put at risk by welfare reform"The jobcentre supervisor told the man that his poor timekeeping had become an issue and put him at risk of being "sanctioned". "You have two options," he said. "Start turning up to the appointments on time; or continue like this and your claim will be disallowed." According to a health and safety report relayed to the Guardian, the man replied: "I have a third option." He reached into his pocket, took out a knife, and cut his wrists."

"A group of long-term unemployed jobseekers were bussed into London to work as unpaid stewards during the diamond jubilee celebrations and told to sleep under London Bridge before working on the river pageant . . .

Two jobseekers, who did not want to be identified in case they lost their benefits, said they had to camp under London Bridge the night before the pageant. They told the Guardian they had to change into security gear in public, had no access to toilets for 24 hours, and were taken to a swampy campsite outside London after working a 14-hour shift in the pouring rain on the banks of the Thames on Sunday."

A variant of this Workfare scheme is being rolled out to those in the Work Related Activity Group of ESA. I don't want to be treated like that. I feel sick and petrified now. I'm not sure I want to be here any more. I've emailed my MP but don't know what good, if any, that will do. Any suggestions?

After five weeks of hell of no shampoo or conditioner and using nothing but bicarbonate of soda and apple cider vinegar and the occasional essential oil on my hair I was ready to give up. The greasiness refused to go away and it was still itchy. I thought I'd give it one last go and decided to increase the concentration of the bicarb. It worked! The greasiness went! My hair was lovely again! And it has stayed that way for about a week. I've reduced the bicarb concentration and my hair is still lovely. I've stopped constantly wearing it in two plaits and have even worn it down!

I saw my GP on Monday who thinks the bicarb might be too strong for my scalp but reckons the itchiness is eczema. I now have to nuke my head with a steroid lotion for the next three weeks. No change yet but this is only day four and these things take time.

It would appear than I am not allergic to my shampoo/conditioner. What I have is rather fine and not really noticeable dandruff that results in a very itchy scalp about a day or so after washing. Fuck this for a barrel of laughs. Despite the itchiness not being caused by my shampoo and conditioner I'd rather stick with the bicarb and apple cider vinegar method of hair washing. I've come this far I'd rather not pack it in now.

New plan. Kill the dandruff. Vosene didn't work last time and I know from past experience that I'm very allergic to Neutragena T-Gel shampoo and just about everything made by Head & Shoulders. I have no desire to spend yet more money on shampoos and the apple cider vinegar hasn't helped so it's time for a new plan. New plan involves seven drops of tea tree oil, seven drops of lavender oil and seven drops of rosemary oil in about a tablespoon of carrier oil. I'm using olive oil because I'm feeling too cheap to buy anything else. On Wednesday night I made up the above, undid the plaits and nuked my scalp. On Thursday I washed my hair, which was definitely greasy enough to fry chips in, with the bicarb and ACV. This didn't work very well and I almost gave up and went back to normal shampoo and conditioner. I ended up leaving the shower with hair that still felt greasy. Towel dried it, plaited it and went role-playing. It still smelt of tea tree, lavender and rosemary. Yum.

By Friday evening there was no itching. Over 24 hours since the last wash and nothing. Friday night and still no itching. This could be an improvement but we'll see. About an hour ago I did the three essential oil/olive oil thing again but only used half a tablespoon of olive oil. Hair is back in plaits and will be washed tomorrow. Given the amount of pain I'm in currently this may end up being postponed. Fortunately the only person I have to visit tomorrow knows about and accepts what I'm doing so she won't mind if my hair is greasy. I can wear a hat on the bus. At least it smells nice.

If, after a fortnight of doing this, the essential oil crap hasn't properly solved the dandruff/itchiness problem I shall be going to my GP. I'd rather not end up with a prescription for polytar or the like but if this doesn't work I guess I'll have to. Wish me luck please!

Once again Royal Mail have pissed me off and it's nothing to do with the price increases. Oh no. This is to do with their leaving items with "your designated neighbour". The phrase "your designated neighbour" is farcical as you don't actually get to designate your neighbour. It just happens to be whichever of the people around you happens to be in. Could be anyone. Could be the thieving arsehole upstairs or the homophobic wanker two doors down. According to the gentleman on the telephone posties are supposed to have enough common sense to leave it with someone on the same landing as you so if you're disabled and on the ground floor you shouldn't have to go traipsing upstairs to get your packet. On the other hand I can count the number of posties I've encountered who have common sense on one finger.

So you can't designate a neighbour but you can opt out. What? Really? How? I didn't even know my postcode was unfortunate enough to be in a trial area. How the fuck am I supposed to divine that I can opt out of this trial? I asked the gentleman on the phone how one can opt out. He DIDN'T KNOW! He told me to "look for it online". That was really helpful.

About as helpful as the card. You can't designate a neighbour, so surely the card should say which of your seven neighbours has your parcel. Nope. Nothing at all. Fortunately I took a sensible approach and tried the one nearest me. They had my parcel. Thankfully they're really nice but I can't say the same for everyone else in the stair. I've now opted out. I know I moan about having to trek down to the arse end of Portobello whenever the postie with common sense decides a thin children's book is too large for my letter box (I guess my letter box must randomly shrink when I'm not around) but I'd rather that than have my post vanish into the ether because it's been left with one of my arsehole neighbours with no clue on the card as to which on it is.

Royal Mail failing again.

If you want to opt out of this farce click here. I realise this might be great if you have trustworthy neighbours but I don't and as half the properties in the stair are rented and there's a high turnover I just can't take the chance.

I haven't washed my hair since Sunday lunchtime. Yesterday afternoon I asked Mark if it smelt. He said it did a bit but couldn't tell me what it smelt like. I'm hoping/guessing it's just general sweat/unwashedness rather than ew, yuckiness. Although general sweat/unwashedness is kinda ew, yuckiness. He did say he had to go right up close to smell anything.

I was going to wash it before I went to bed but I currently feel like the world is collapsing in on me to the point where I cannot handle making a cup of tea. If I tried to shower now I'd probably end up using normal shampoo/conditioner just because I feel as though I cannot cope with anything.

I will wash it tomorrow when I shower. We're roleplaying in the evening and I hate going out with icky hair.

My scalp is slightly itchy today but I'm wondering if I'm reacting to my own sweat rather than shampoo etc. The itching only starts about 24 hours after washing or after I've slept at least once. Maybe I'm allergic to my hypo-allergenic pillow. Or the washing powder, but then the rest of me would itch. I shall stop the paranoid ramblings here and put clean pillowcases on my bed tomorrow after I've washed my hair. There's no point doing that now.

Washed my hair around lunchtime on Sunday. Used the apple cider vinegar rinse thing first to get rid of dandruff/itchiness, then washed with the bicarb solution then conditioned with the apple cider vinegar. Hair currently smells of hair and is back in two plaits as it's annoying me. It's not the greasiness, it's annoying me in general. And I think it's become a bit brittle. I guess I'm using too much bicarbonate of soda. Time to dilute it some more. For some weird reason my hair doesn't appear to look greasy. It looks normal. It just feels wrong, sticky. It's weird.

Time to watch some more Mysterious Cities of Gold before bed. I think I got up to episode 4, only 35 to go. I may be some time.

Tomorrow's plan involves looking for a gravestone that Mark photographed last month. He's lost it. The grave, not the photo. When he went back to the cemetery to do a slightly different take on that stone he couldn't find it. Hopefully with two of us looking we'll find it as the photo of it in Pulp Fiction sold on Sunday and the person who bought it is interested to know who the grave belongs to.

Scalp is still slightly itchy but not quite as itchy as when I use normal shampoo and conditioner. It still feels greasy and rather sticky so I've been wearing it in two plaits to hide its yuckiness. I have no idea how it smells but Mark assures me it doesn't smell 'bad'. Just different.

Thanks to theweird1ne suggestion of longhair I found this post which contains just about everything you'd want to know about going shampoo-free.

Now that I'm thinking about it my scalp is insanely itchy as is the rest of me. I wonder if they're adding chlorine to the water again. :(

I'm going to do my to NOT wash my hair tonight and wait until tomorrow. I'll buy and use some white vinegar as an anti-dandruff rinse, then the bicarb to wash and then the ACV as a conditioner. One of the suggestions for a conditioner has lavender, tea tree or rosemary essential oils in it. Note to self, go to Napiers get some rosemary essential oil so you can try these. I know I'm fine with lavender and tea tree as I have both of those. Rosemary sounds nice.

I'm still paranoid about having head lice and if the itchiness isn't gone by next week I'll probably treat my head to that lovely asthma-inducing stuff from the chemist. I may have to lie about my asthma in order to get it. Fortunately it has never triggered my asthma in the past.

Having neither bicarb or apple cider vinegar* I just washed my hair with water and used a tinybit of normal conditioner on the ends. My hair is a little bit greasier than normal but with most of it tied back you hardly notice. Not had much in the way of an itchy scalp yet but it tends to come on a day or so after I wash my hair. *crosses fingers*

*Damn. I knew there was something I wanted to do whilst I was at Pulp Fiction. I meant to go to Real Foods and get some ACV. Unfortunately Steve was feeling really ill and was very happy to see Mark and I arrive. Mark was busy with sabledemon and website stuff so I got roped into minding the shop for five hours. I got a lovely book of Russian Fairy Tales out of it so I'm not complaining.

After having become allergic to yet another brand of supposedly "good for you" shampoo and conditioner I've given up and decided to go shampoo free.

My current plan is to go with the bicarbonate of soda and apple cider vinegar method. One tbs of bicarb in a cup of water as shampoo and one tbs of vinegar in a cup of water as conditioner. I plan to keep this place updated with how it works out . . .

I've been warned that the first few weeks are probably going to be a grease-fest but I cannot take the constantly itchy scalp any longer and I really do not want to have to take antihistamines every single day just because my hair is used to product. (I had my GP aunt check for nits just in case I've picked them up from a kid again but she gave my head a clean bill of health.)

There may be photos at the end of this to show how my hair has responded to this treatment. There will be no pictures of the grease-fest.